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Happyness review
Happyness review
'Happyness' is worth pursuing (REVIEW)
By Sevanand Gaddala,
Film: "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Cast: Will Smith, Thandie
Newton, Jaden Christopher Smith; Director: Gabriele Muccino;
Ratings: ***
Even a wallet with very little money can be heavy. Though the
movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" is no way trying to be a tome
on poverty, it shows us the awesome weight of poverty and how it
can seep into every moment of the day.
A wallet having just $5 may not be much but it is a lot when it
determines a decent meal for you and your son or both going to
bed hungry.
"The Pursuit of Happyness" stars Will Smith, Thandie Newton, who
plays his wife, and his real life son Jaden Christopher Smith
plays his son in it.
It is a simple story about Chris Gardener (Smith) struggling to
support his family by selling portable bone-density scanners.
The job is all the more difficult since nobody wants to buy
these things but he has no choice since he has invested all his
life savings into these gadgets.
One day he runs into a stockbroker with a fancy car who tells
Chris that all he has do to make it that big is to be good with
numbers and know how to deal with people.
Chris believes he has both these requirements but cannot yet
take on an internship with the stockbroker's company because
they don't pay interns and there is no guarantee of a job. The
only way to get a job is to place first among a pool of 20
hopefuls.
The plot line is simple and the depiction is straightforward
without any emphasis on sentimentality. But the genius of the
movie lies in its depiction of the way poverty can weigh you and
how it affectedly determines every single moment of your life;
especially if you are responsible for others like your children.
The movie borders on depressing but pulls back just enough.
Director Gabriele Muccino does a good job of not trying to milk
the scenes to induce tears. Instead, he lets the distressing
situations unfold as realistically as possible.
We witness the characters, especially Chris, try to maintain
composure and figure out how to get out of one horrendous
situation after another as they constantly beset him.
The movie doesn't fall into the trap of making it a cheesy
triumph of the human spirit against all odds that most Hollywood
films do. We have to wait till the last 10 minutes of the movie
to share Chris' pursuit of happiness finally ending. Till then,
we are made to share in the struggles.
The director does a fine job of laying out the moments and
having the main character get to the core of the situation. When
placed in that overwhelming middle, we patiently have to wait as
Gardener figures a way out.
The thrill of the movie lies in its depiction of the fact that
no matter how hard life's struggles may be, with a lot of
determination, hard work and, yes, even a twist of luck,
happiness is worth pursuing.
IANS.
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